Month: January 2019

January at Flinders

January is a time of transition at Flinders, a time of exploration, discovery and wonder. We move to new buildings, meet new people, discover new places. We search and question. We become familiar, and find new ways to belong. For some, the journey is brand new, as new children and families are welcomed into the Flinders community in all Houses. For others, it is the careful blending of the familiar and the unfamiliar as looping maintains relationships in new environments. Change is present for all of us, so we move gently and kindly together as we uncover the new. Programs during January, and sometimes through February and March, focus on the development of strong, respectful relationships. Educators’ primary focus is to build, develop and maintain reciprocal relationships with children and families. This might look like cuddles, stories, songs, shared play, smiles, hand holding, or quiet time just being close by. Each individual relationship is a dance, and it can take time for each participant to learn the steps. Sometimes families wonder; what can I do to help my child feel settled? Here a some simple tips that might help. You know your child best, so please feel free to share your thoughts with an educator or offer other suggestions in the comments; Sharing your positive thoughts about Flinders and the things your child might do Being brave Taking time to stay and play at pick up time, and making drop offs brief and kind Talking about children and educators yourRead more

The Sturt House Community Flag

In November Sturt House celebrated and raised the Sturt House Community Flag.  As posted in July the children at Sturt House have taken a journey this year to express their identity through the making of a flag.  It is now raised in the morning and waves a warm welcome as families arrive each day.  It has become part of the rhythms, routine and culture of Sturt House.  It acknowledges our interdependence with each other and belonging as part of this community, our “together group”.  It depicts our relationships, our place at Sturt House and Flinders and the things we enjoy together.  Let it wave a welcome to you.  

A Map of Sturt House

Mapping has been an interest for many of the Sturt House children in 2018.  It started with ‘hide and seek with maps’ the year before in Preschool House and grew into treasure maps, maps to go in adventure backpacks, maps about Nature Play, maps of Flinders, maps from holidays and maps found in books.  We explored maps in many ways; their curiosity never satisfied. In late October, educators posed an invitation to the children; could we make a map of Sturt House?  Out intention was to bring together several ideas; mapping and collaborative work as an extension of the virtue of cooperation.  We discussed the idea with the children and one child suggested that we could make the map ‘so that the Preschool House children would know how to get to Sturt House’.  This idea consolidated the project by introducing the notion of giving, our final virtue focus for the year.  And so, the project; ‘A Map for the Preschool House Children Coming to Sturt House’ began. The project presented many problems for the educators and children to solve. How were we going to coordinate all the children’s contributions? How were we going to keep the map roughly to scale? What materials should we use to make the map? We decided to use Google Earth as a starting point; projecting the image of Flinders onto the wall for the children to explore and ultimately trace. This tracing gave us the structure for our map and now we were ready to addRead more